Sunday, September 28, 2008

In an articulate and courageous September 19 statement, the Catholic archbishop of Paraiba, Brazil reiterated the perennial doctrine of the Church against homosexual practice and same-sex "marriage."

Archbishop Aldo di Cillo Pagotto denounced what he called the "missionaries of the homosexual cause," who seek to impose ostensible homosexual practice on society by creating a "crime of homophobia that must be penalized as discrimination."[1]

Homosexual Union Against the Nature of Marriage

Archbishop Pagotto begins his statement by showing how neither Brazilian civil law nor Church law approves such “marriage.” They do not recognize its validity and legitimacy as means for the formation of a family, “since it lacks the essential conditions for its intended purpose, namely the fruitful union between a man and a woman, begetting children” who can be “formed and educated in a family environment.”

The Phobia Mechanism

The Brazilian archbishop also denounced the myth of "homophobia" used by the homosexual movement to label opposition. He explains the psychological reasoning behind this label.

"Missionary indoctrinators of the homosexual cause,” Archbishop Pagotto says, "project their own fears and ambiguities onto the banner of homophobia." Thus, by using this "habitual phobia mechanism as a homosexual banner, they cast the anguish of their unresolved inner drives upon heterosexuals and society as a whole.” The cause of their anguish is the “inner contradiction” in which these people live which results from the way they deal with the "disappointment or disapproval of the outside world toward homosexual behavior."

“Political Banner”

After projecting their own interior conflict on society, these “missionaries of the homosexual cause” go on to the next phase by politicizing their vice.

The Archbishop of Paraíba explains how they mobilize to promote sexual diversity through the use of “pressure groups that see ghosts of their persecutors in every corner. They liken themselves to minorities excluded from society, such as victims of racism and prejudice. They mobilize and advocate a political platform by creating the crime of homophobia which must be repressed and penalized.”

Homosexual Practice as Right

In this way, homosexual practice is “politicized” and its opponents are criminalized. The homosexual movement then strives to impose the practice of homosexuality upon society as a source of rights. The archbishop explains:

The ‘gay’ flag is given legal legitimacy in the courts of many countries, which in turn causes yet more juridical claims, tending toward legal protection for and ostensive promotion of homosexuality as part of the guarantee of all civil rights. However, these rights are not those that all have but rather only those that promote the cause of homosexuality.

Pressure groups shield the subjectivism of their sexual option behind human rights and impose themselves on society and the State by demanding the reforming of that which cannot be reformed: the natural and positive law established by the Creator.

Destroying Natural Law and Family

Thus, so-called homosexual “marriage” is contrary to the order of nature and natural law and its approval would be tantamount to suicide: “The Church sees this as a suicide of natural law and the social bonds that establishes the family as the basic cell of society.”

Homosexual Dictatorship

The clear and courageous statement by Archbishop Aldo de Cillo Pagotto is all the more opportune in view of a bill now before the Brazilian Senate which would establish as a crime punishable with imprisonment any restriction on the practice or display of homosexuality.[2]

This bill is so radical that Bishop Redovino Rizzardo of the Dourados Diocese summarizes it as follows:

From every indication, when the bill is voted into law, in addition to the basic rights the Federal Constitution guarantees to all Brazilian citizens, homosexuals will have privileges and advantages derived from their sexual choice. In contrast, all those who do not agree with homosexual behavior will either have to keep quiet or get ready to occupy a cell in one of the country’s prisons.[3]

Timely Encouragement

Given the international nature of the homosexual movement’s campaign to impose its goals on society, the courageous statement by the Brazilian archbishop is a timely encouragement for all those who defend the sacred institution of the family based on matrimony as inscribed “in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hands of the Creator.”[4]